*Criterion Winter 02-4.16 - Divinity School - University of Chicago

Wilde fell deeply and inextricably in love with Bosie and,
in his own equally complex way, Bosie loved Wilde.
tormenting his father just by being the person he was.
The Douglas family enjoyed a reputation for madness.
And “enjoyed” seems the proper verb. Joseph Pearce notes
that “The eccentric streak which appears to be an inherent
characteristic of the Queensberrys dated back to James
(1672–1711), son of the second
Duke of Queensberry, who
was reputedly “an idiot from
birth.” 10 It is difficult to understate
the malevolence of Bosie’s
father. One example will suffice
to give a taste of it. Given to
abandoning his wife and children
for long periods, in “1887
he ironically suggested to his
wife that, since she complained
of his absences, he would come
home to stay, with his mistress, so
that the three of them would be
together. On that his wife’s
patience gave way and, aided
by her father and friends, she
divorced him.” 11 As one contemporary
wag summed them
up, “Anything short of murder
in the Douglas family is a source
of congratulation.” 12
Bosie’s exotic strangeness is
only enhanced by his unique
gift, not just for poetry, but for
poetry of a very particular kind.
Smitten with the poetic works
of Shakespeare, whose sonnets
followed the English sonnet
form, Douglas determined to master the more difficult Petrarchan
sonnet form. This dubious achievement simultaneously
irritated a father whose lasting legacy was pugilistic and
endeared him to Wilde, who saw in this fragile youth a
beauty and gift to be mentored and cherished. These volatile
ingredients made a recipe for destruction.
16 WINTER 2002
From that simple legal referral, a favor of an older, sympathetic,
and supposedly wiser man to a younger one in difficulty,
proceeded the personal and professional equivalent
of a nuclear meltdown. To make a very long and sordid story
more compact and presentable, suffice it to say that Wilde
fell deeply and inextricably in
love with Bosie and, in his
own equally complex way,
Bosie loved Wilde. A lifelong
relationship commenced with
a prolonged affair described
by one writer as “alternating
scenes of ‘Greek’ sensualitycum-spirituality
and squalid
nastiness.” 13 It began with
clandestine assignations between
the two, when Bosie was
a student at Oxford and Wilde
was a newly successful playwright
in London, a professional
circumstance that afforded
excuse for Wilde’s protracted
absence from home. The two
met either in Oxford or in the
hotels in London where Wilde
took rooms ostensibly to write
undistracted by family and for
proximity to the productions
of his plays. When necessity
demanded his attentions as a
husband and father, the two
men sustained the “relationship
by post, under the noses of his
loving wife and children. This
was a fine early example of what, in The Importance of Being
Earnest, is named a ‘bunbury.’” 14
As their relationship became more public, it became
increasingly and intentionally difficult to ignore. After
an initial and somewhat favorable introduction to Wilde
orchestrated by Douglas to impress his father, Queensberry